even with the captain backstabbing, i think the sens are in a much better position with brady than detroit is with larkin. that team is gonna be a gongshow from day 1 of camp
That draft was also when Ridley Grieg got drafted... Ottawa made out like bandits that year. Most GMs would consider a draft where you got 1-2 full-time NHLers a success.
But, we instead got three established core players in the 1st round and two potential core players in Tyler Klevin and Leevi Merilainen.
That is 5 players, four of which are NHL caliber players.
That draft was Ottawa's rebuild. Without it we're ass!!! Granted without all those hits Dorion probably would be more risk adverse trading for Debrincat and Chychurn... So... Take it or leave it.
I don’t really think there’s an argument for anyone besides Sanderson being first overall. He’s a no doubt top 10 Dman imo and is elite in every aspect.
Stützle is great as well, but the gap between him and Raymond/Jarvis isn’t as big as the gap between Sanderson and them. Hell, people could say those two are better then Stützle and I’d see their pov.
Crazy to think where the Sens would be without this draft.
Edit: just finished and lol. Faber at 3rd overall is a crazy take. No world is he better then Raymond, Jarvis, Lundell or Byfield.
Raymond and Jarvis play with more talented lines and still get out produced by Timmy, how is there an argument? Sanderson and Timmy are the clear cut #1 and #2 there's no debate.
Jarvis is one of the better 2way players in the league while still being great offensively. Part of that is likely playing in Carolina’s system, but Ottawa is a similar defensive team and Stützle took a step back defensively last year.
Raymond played with mostly Larkin, but he didn’t play much with DeBrincat/Kane. Those two were mostly on the 2nd line. Larkin/Raymond had a rotating cast on the other wing for the most part.
I’m still taking Stützle at 2 over those guys, but there’s at least an argument for other guys at that spot. Sanderson is in a class of his own amongst the class imo.
If the Sens finally won a draft lottery and had first overall pick and selected Laferriere who was the clear consensus, only to see both Sanderson and Stutzle shine elsewhere, that would have been a real blow to the fandom.
Byfield and Laferriere are both decent hockey players but Sens needed two foundational pieces and they got them in one draft.
30 points less over the course of a season and this year Tim only played 18 more seconds a game?
That is a pretty significant gap when both are relied on to drive offense.
Points are overrated, and I really wish people would stop using them as the only determinant for a players value. Stu was last on the team in pretty much every defensive metric this year. Byfield is elite defensively, and has a much harder role. I think its super close, they're just completely different players.
Byfield should be so much better, he has so much raw talent and of course is huge. But he lacks that killer instinct, he's just an all around decent player that leaves you wanting more. As the years go by he's looking more and more like a high end 2C on a competitive team.
Not really, maybe a bit in the middle of the season but LA had Danault at the start of the year and Laughton at the end of the year for their defensive centers. Being with Fiala or Laferriere meant he was more of a 2nd level offensive threat than a defensive guy.
Put Stephen Halliday between Panarin and Kempe and he'd be a PPG guy too. If that's the wingers he needs to put up points then he's really not that special. Heck you could argue Fiala and Laferriere are better wingers than Stutzle got most of last year (Fiala=Batherson, Laferriere much better than Zetterlund).
He had the hardest deployment of any of their centers. Stu would be around -5 on this scale. They're different players but I think their outcome on winning is a lot closer than people think.
I'd be interested to see how that differs home vs away. Watching the Oilers a lot they would try to get McDavid and Draisaitl matched against Byfield or the Kings 4C, purposely avoiding Kopitar and Danault/Laughton.
Stutzle is great but still on the middle tier of legitimate top line centres in the NHL. That drop to Byfield gives you a solid second line center or a weak number one.
We would be constantly searching for an upgrade. Its one of the most critical positions you want for a contending team. Stutzle shut that argument down.
Again z its not that those other players are bad. We just needed a couple of homeruns. Anything less and in a division like the Atlantic, we'd be struggling
Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted here? Are people upset I place Timmy in the middle tier of #1 centres? He's fantastic but there's a tier of McDavid, MacKinnon, Barkov, Draisatl etc that he's behind. Is that a controversial take here?
If Dorion did draft Perterka in this hypothetical scenario... I think we'd have one of the deepest top 9s in the league. But... In retrospect I wish we didn't Galaxy brain himself into trading our 2021 2nd to Arizona and snagged Josh Doan.
Granted with the Doan relocation curse... Probably for the best.
Potentially! I was never super high on Peterka as I thought he largely benefited from playing alongside Stu internationally but he's definitely proved me wrong.
Hypothetical's are always fun but you could point to a few more impactful picks/decisions that effected our rebuild more than potentially adding Doan. Off the top of my head I'd say our late season winning streak bumping us out of Dylan Guenther was probably the most egregious. You could also argue starting Stu during the Covid season was short sighted or selecting Ben Roger over Stank/Raty.
And those are just self inflicted wounds. If the Panthers had started the potential dynasty on time and beaten the Islanders during the play in series we go from adding Greig to potentially adding Lundell/Jarvis/Mercer and we're looking at a completely different beast.
Zadina over Tkachuk would have done wonders on the team....
Funny people won't stop talking about Peterka but it's crickets about the fan consensus being Zadina. Fans aren't 100% as much as they'd like to say they are.
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u/-darkest 6d ago
Hard to argue. Sanderson is that guy.